It Was Just an Accident (CTC)

Iranian master director Jafar Panahi reimagines the road movie in his Palme d’Or-winning revenge drama. Combining moral dilemmas, comic moments and shocking revelations to potent effect, its outstanding ensemble cast takes you on a thrilling and devastating emotional rollercoaster.

Vahid, an unassuming mechanic, has a chance encounter with Eghbal, a man he strongly suspects to be his former sadistic jailhouse captor. Panicked, Vahid gathers several former prisoners, all abused by that same captor, to try and confirm Eghbal's identity. As the bickering group drives around Tehran with the captive, they must confront how far to take matters into their own hands with their presumed tormentor.

From master filmmaker Jafar Panahi comes a searing moral thriller that engages with complex ideas about the uncertainty of the truth and the choice between revenge and mercy, as Panahi turns his personal dissonance into a profound and galvanizing work of art.

Cast: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Madjid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr, Maryam Afshari, Hadis Paak Baten, Majid Panahi, Mohammad Ali Eliyas Mehr, Delmaz Najafi, Afsaneh Najm Abadi

Director: Jafar Panahi

★★★★★ "It is just so intelligent; so blisteringly powerful; so light of touch." EVENING STANDARD

★★★★★ "It's a beautifully-written and executed work, one of Panahi's most formally straightforward yet powerful, gripping and generous." LWL

★★★★★ "Panahi holds this tonal range expertly as laughs give away to a probing, philosophical third act that upends expectations in quietly thrilling style." TIME OUT

★★★★★ "It’s a film of overwhelmingly visceral emotion; impossible, then, to separate from what we imagine Panahi must feel himself." INDEPENDENT UK

★★★★★ "As with all of Panahi’s work, you applaud the simple fact of its existence." FINANCIAL TIMES

★★★★★ "a searing drama about the nature of forgiveness" MOVIE WEB

★★★★½ "A film born of rage, grief, history, and pitch-black humour, it's a political thriller wrapped in a Beckettian farce and spiked with a gut-punch of emotional urgency" JAM REPORT

★★★★½ "One of the boldest, most essential pieces of cinema you'll need to see this year" RENDY REVIEWS

★★★★ "It’s another very impressive serio-comic film from one of the most distinctive and courageous figures in world cinema" GUARDIAN